Systems which automatically distribute customer contacts or calls (generically referred to as “ACD”) are often employed in telemarketing environments in which agents stationed at agent telephone sets answer many different types of telephone calls and other types of customer contacts (e.g., VoIP, emails, facsimile, chat room dialog, instant messages, other Internet contacts, etc.) from customers during a work day. As referred to herein, an ACD may be referred to as an automatic call distributor or an automatic contact distributor because the ACD handles a variety of communication media. In other words, the ACD handles many forms of communication, not just telephone calls in which a potential customer speaks with an agent. The term “ACD” may apply to any type of transaction processing system, and need not apply only to dedicated telemarketing systems or automatic call distributors. In some known ACD's, the agent may receive certain information about the type of customer call (i.e. contact) on a visual display at the agent set when a call or contact is distributed to the agent. An ACD is any such system which performs these functions and, for example, may employ a wide variety of architectures including integrated centralized systems, distributed systems, systems using one or more personal computers or servers, etc.
In some embodiments, ACD's may be used to support a number of different vendors in their telemarketing effort, and in such marketing environments, the agent is typically in communication with the customer or potential customer with respect to or on behalf of a particular vendor. The next contact that the agent processes may be on behalf of the same vendor or on behalf of a different vendor. In another embodiment, ACD's may be used exclusively by or on behalf of a single vendor such that all of the contacts processed by the agent involve one particular vendor.
Often, a customer call is distributed to an agent that involves interactive voice dialog. This means a normal two-way verbal exchange. An ACD, however, may also distribute a non-voice dialog contact or call to the agent. This does not involve direct two-way speech between the agent and the customer or caller. Non-voice dialog communication may be, for example, emails, facsimile, chat room dialog, instant messaging, Internet, etc. and the like. This is becoming more common as Internet traffic and electronic sales transactions increase. Handling of the non-voice dialog contact may in some instances require a specialized device or subcomponent of the ACD. In this situation, the agent may typically view text on a display screen that the caller typed in or transmitted. In response, the agent may provide information to the contact or request information from the caller, via the keyboard or other input device. Essentially, the dialog between the agent and the caller occurs on a display screen. Further, the agent may handle multiple calls. For example, the agent may typically handle two to five (or more) simultaneous non-voice dialog communications or transactions, which may be presented as two to five separate dialog windows on the display screen, which windows may, for example, be tiled or layered. Of course, the number of simultaneous transactions may vary significantly.
Typically, if a voice dialog or voice mode communication is received by the ACD system and routed to the agent, the agent responds verbally and engages in a voice dialog with the caller. Similarly, if a text-base message, such as email or chat, is received by the agent, the agent may typically respond using the same medium, meaning the agent types his or her response and transmits the message it to the caller. However, an agent may prefer one medium over another. For example, an agent may have poor typing skills, and therefore may prefer to speak with the caller. However, in known communication systems, if a non-voice dialog or text-base call is routed to a particular agent, the agent is essentially forced to respond using the same medium, namely text, and thus may be at a disadvantage due to his or her particular lack of skill in handling communications in that particular medium.
In the converse scenario, a voice-dialog message may be routed to an agent who prefers to type all responses and does not wish to engage in a verbal dialog with the caller. Perhaps the agent has exceptional typing skills or the agent's native language is different than the caller's native language, and is thus may not be particularly proficient in the caller's language. Accordingly, the agent may prefer to use text-based dialog. Again, in known communication systems, the agent in this scenario would be essentially forced to respond using verbal communication. This is inefficient and may be costly in terms of transaction speed, transaction accuracy, and customer satisfaction.
A need exists to permit the agent of a transaction processing system to select a preferred mode of communication with a customer or potential customer even though the call was not initiated using that mode, and which would automatically translate the call medium into the preferred medium.